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Man Who Tweeted During Police Standoff Is Taken Into Custody

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- An unusual standoff comes to a peaceful end.

As Adam May reports, when police tried to arrest a local blogger, he decided to broadcast the event over the Internet.

Baltimore's SWAT team surrounded a home in Waverly Saturday night for hours. Inside was James MacArthur, a local crime blogger who police say was wanted on a warrant violation.

MacArthur turned the tables by broadcasting the long police negotiation on his website, the Baltimore Spectator through Internet radio. He was also sending out tweets from his Twitter account, @BaltoSpectator, during the ordeal.

"The very fact that you're here right now means that this is not, this is already one of those extreme cases. There's nothing routine about this," said MacArthur during the live show. "Being in my house, minding my own business, conducting my own Internet broadcast to my loyal fans and followers and now being surrounded by a SWAT team, this is already in an extreme."

Court records show MacArthur was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon a few years ago.

MacArthur's Twitter profile reads: "Dr. James MacArthur, physical culturist, social-pathologist/observational theorist. Independent urban combat correspondent, journalist contributor, radio guy."

According to police, he made threatening statements over the Internet during the standoff.

MacArthur spent much of the time on the phone with police, debating their policies and criticizing police. At one point, MacArthur interrupted an officer and said, "You're here to take me down."

He also Tweeted the entire ordeal while he spoke about the standoff's popularity on social and mainstream media.

"Alright, 10:57. Network news comes on at  11. Let's wrap this up for the networks, huh? That's a good one," he said during the broadcast.

An officer played along and said, "To all of our listeners, thank you for listening."

MacArthur was arrested without incident.

Police found a sawed off shotgun inside the home. MacArthur is being held at Central Booking.

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